Playwright: J.M. Synge. At: Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark St. Tickets: 773-338-2177; www.raventheatre.com; $36 . Runs through: April 5 . Runs through: March 16
It's been said that a brush with the Grim Reaper can be a life-changing event. More than 100 years ago, John Millington Synge's portrait of Ireland's West Coast populace proved that two near-death experiences can make for even greater dramatic upheavaland in real life, can also rouse audiences on both sides of the Atlantic to vegetable-hurling cease-and-desist fury.
Consider his plot: A young stranger seeks shelter at a small rural tavern in County Mayo, claiming to be fleeing the police after murdering his abusive father with a farming hoe. This confession quickly lends the handsome fugitive a glamour irresistible to the neighborhood women, weary of their excessively pious or habitually bibulous menfolk. When the alleged criminal's irascible sirewounded, but not deadarrives to fetch his errant offspring home, the youth is so reluctant to abandon his new-found good fortune that he kills the old man again, vowing to face the hangman bravely.
As used in the title, a "playboy" is more what we today call a "player" than the sybarite it has come to represent to us. For Dublin citizens attempting to forge an Irish National Theater in 1906, a play extolling the allure of a homicidal liar to a bevy of amoral hayseeds appeared ill-suited to dispelling the stereotypes imposed upon them by centuries of prejudice. In 2014, however, we are not so outraged at the notion of "respectable" people suspending their principles when confronted with material gain, or of females ( like the would-be groupie who jeers another for "having nothing to confess" on Sundays ) asserting their sexual privilege by shunning the nice guys in favor of the bad boys.
This is especially true when the turned worm is portrayed by the charming and athletic Sam Hubbard, whose slapstick agilityshowcased in a full-stage brawl involving several strong ropes and a likewise sturdy tablecommands our attention every moment. He is perfectly matched by Jen Short ( whom playgoers will remember from the recent Road to Bountiful ), as the innkeeper's smitten daughter. Contributing additional exemplary ensemble support are Sarah Hayes as a slyly pragmatic widow, Graham Emmons as a born-to-be-rejected suitor, Lawrence Garner as the intractable patriarch no less handy with a bludgeon than his desperate offspring, and a cast whose infectious enthusiasm renders this Raven Theatre production a welcome harbinger of springtime's promise.